LAST MAN STANDING
by deetatarant
Summary: Ianto loses a friend from Canary Wharf. No plot.


LAST MAN STANDING

**AN: A one off piece…no real story line, just a fragment really approx mid way through season two.**

**LAST MAN STANDING**

Jack stood in his office surveying the scene across the Hub whilst sipping on his wonderful coffee courtesy of Ianto.

As usual the young man had stepped in through roller door at 6am sharp and gone straight to his first task of the day, coffee and breakfast with Jack. It had become a routine for them, whether Ianto stayed at the Hub for the night or not, they always had breakfast together, Torchwood permitting. It was a brief time in the day where they discussed everything except Torchwood, Aliens or anything even slightly related to their working lives. Mostly this took place in the boardroom, occasionally in Jack's bunk and sometimes, weather permitting, on the roof of the Millennium centre. Both Jack and Ianto had come to treasure those small moments of normality. A time where they could laugh, joke; make small talk and bitch about the labour government. The most physical it ever got was them holding hands and the occasional kiss. That had become an unwritten and unspoken rule. This part of the day was for talking, for getting to know one another and it soon became Ianto's favourite part of their growing relationship. It gave him some sense of balance in his life and he was grateful that Jack had recognised that he needed this small thing each day in order to get through the rest of it. On the other hand Jack found it enjoyable for the sake of knowing that he could say what ever he liked and that Ianto would never judge him for it, never demand explanations or simply never make demands. Ianto just accepted and that was all Jack needed from him. Other private moments between them were almost always devoted to their mutual fondness for 'dabbling'. As time went on old betrayals were set aside and pushed into the distance and a new trust was forged between them. Jack was eternally grateful for that because he needed that trust above anything else, it had sprung from Ianto's ability to just accept and get on, knowing that Jack would know how to put all the bad things right. Jack knew he didn't deserve such blind faith, certainly hadn't earned the level of loyalty that Ianto always showed him and would never be good enough for the love that Ianto bestowed upon him.

They had just finished their morning ritual at 8am when Ianto sat at Tosh's computer to check his emails. Jack watched from his office. Tosh and Gwen were helping Owen in the autopsy bay and Jack could see the faint glow of the monitor reflecting off Ianto's unreadable as ever face. That look, that completely incomprehensible look that Ianto always carried with him when he was with his colleagues fascinated Jack. It always had. He had never met anyone so skilled at hiding themselves in plain view. Jack turned away and glared at his pile of paperwork. He just couldn't put it off any longer and sucking in a sigh he moved reluctantly toward his 'desk of doom'. Ianto was good at coming up with these little labels for things and Jack's desk, laden with paperwork was most definitely the 'desk of doom', mainly because Ianto knew that he would end up having to file it all once Jack had finally ploughed his way through it. Jack settled himself down hoping for some nice minor distraction to happen along and save him from the purgatory before him. Who the hell invented paperwork anyway? Some sick bastard back in ancient Greece, who needed to be removed from the fabric of time space, as far as Jack was concerned. Ok, get started. This one on the top. Jack perused the cover of the folder. UNIT, bollocks that one was due to be finished and sent off a week ago. Ianto had reminded him as well. Shit, the Welshman would not be happy about that. Unhappily Jack opened and spread the documents out to read them. Great, just great! Bored now.

Ianto sipped on his coffee as he scanned his list of emails. There were not many, he rarely received them in his personal account, but today there was one that caught his eye and caused him to hitch a breath before he'd even opened it. He clicked on it with the mouse.

"_Yanni,_

_Regret to inform you that Matthew Harris passed away yesterday morning. Cally was too upset to write, could you come to London please? We need you._

_Jan"_

Ianto lurched to his feet and fled the Hub, without even bothering to close the email down from the screen.

No one noticed his departure until two hours later Jack sauntered out of his office in search of refreshment. He gazed about the empty main area of the Hub. Excitable voices filtered up from the autopsy bay as Owen was training Tosh and Gwen in basic trauma medicine, but there was no obvious sign of Ianto. Jack wasn't surprised the young man was probably down in the archive or up in the tourist office, but it was nearly 10:30 and Ianto being the creature of habit that he was would have had the coffee on by now. Jack sniffed the air, definitely no coffee on the go. He decided to have a quick look around, maybe even catch Ianto unawares for a little romantic tete a tete. They hadn't made good use of the archives in weeks. He was disappointed and rather dismayed to discover that Ianto was nowhere to be found. Jack eventually came back to the Hub only to be greeted by a disgusted looking Owen.

"Please tell me my coffee isn't late because you've been shagging the Tea Boy?"

Jack stopped in his tracks. "He's not back up here then?"

Owen faltered. "Er…..no. I thought he was with you."

Tosh was looking up from her terminal. "Jack, I think you should see this."

Owen, Jack and Gwen gathered around Tosh's terminal.

"What are you doing reading his private emails?" Jack demanded after reading the screen.

"He left it open. Jack who is Matthew Harris?" Gwen asked fully expecting Jack to know the answer.

Jack was at a loss. "Tosh pull up the CCTV, see if you can find him."

A few keystrokes later and there was a smile on her face. "There you go." A grainy image of the young man sitting on the wooden boards of the little pier came onto the screen. Jack went and grabbed his coat.

"Be back shortly." He left the Hub at a run.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ianto instinctively knew that Jack was standing behind him.

"It's ok Jack. Sorry, I just needed a bit of air."

Jack sat down beside him. "We saw the email. You've never mentioned a Matthew Harris before, who was he?"

Ianto gazed out across the bay, the leaden sky reflected in the grey choppy water. It looked how he felt.

"Matt and I worked alongside one another under Professor Carter at Torchwood One. I worked with him pretty much the whole two and half years that I was there."

Jack nodded. "You were close?"

Ianto nodded.

"Lovers?"

At that the Welshman turned and frowned at Jack. "No. He was happily married to Cally. He looked after me Jack, watched my back, and taught me stuff. I suppose he reminded me of my Tad."

"I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me."

Ianto allowed a ghost of a smile to grace his lips. "No, that was Jack of you. Not everyone you meet in your life is someone for taking into your bed. I'm not like you Jack, I wish you wouldn't assume that I was or could be."

That stung a bit even without the accusation in Ianto's voice Jack was well aware of the sentiment behind the remark.

"You need some time off?"

Ianto nodded turning away to look back at the bay. "I'm the only one from my department who is still alive. There were 53 of us Jack. I knew them all. We were friends, family in some cases and they are all gone. Last Man Standing. I never expected to go to so many funerals in my life."

Jack tentatively grasped his hand, which was cold.

"You've been to all of them?"

"Everyone except Lisa. I couldn't bury her before she was dead. It felt too much like tempting fete. I'm tired of burying people Jack and now there's no one else to bury." Ianto looked down at Jack's hand that enveloped his.

"When it's my turn, promise me, no funeral."

Jack nodded he understood only too well. "No funeral. It may not be my decision to make. You could be married one day with a family."

"I can't leave this life Jack. I certainly won't subject anyone else to it. Torchwood kills everything in the end. We're like…….well for all the good we do, and we do good; the price is too high so it's best not to have them. I'm lucky really my parents won't have see me die." He sighed. "I'm sorry Jack, I'm just not very strong right now."

"You've never talked about what happened that day."

"I never will. You saw Lisa and what she became……"

"You should talk Ianto, if not to me then someone."

"And who could possibly understand? There are only three of us left over from Torchwood London with enough of our sanity intact to be able to string together a few sentences. The others that didn't take to the Retcon will spend the rest of their lives institutionalised. How do you talk about the incomprehensible and unbelievable?"

Jack didn't have an answer, he'd seen enough destruction in his life to understand the nature of it, but he'd had 150 years to get used to it and learn to let it slide over him.

"Sometimes just saying it helps. I understand Ianto and I wish I didn't. I'll be here for you, the same as I am for the others."

"And who is there for you Jack?"

Jack tightened his grip on Ianto's hand. "Well recently it's been you. One day it will be someone else and someone else after that. I've learnt to accept that. One day I will be like you, Last Man Standing."

"I'm sorry Jack."

"Don't be. You are not responsible for who I am and I do not want pity."

Jack was glad to have Ianto look straight back at him. "It's not pity Jack. I feel regret. Sorry that I cannot fix you and take away you're burdens when you always seem able to take away mine."

"Ianto, you share your life with me, give yourself to me and Torchwood sacrificing a normal life, who could ask for more than that? I know I ask too much of all of you, but you Ianto Jones? Torchwood would fall apart with out you and I don't know what I would do."

Ianto reached up and touched his face. "You would carry on as always, saving the Earth and flirting your way through danger."

Jack hitched an apprehensive grin. "I'd rather not find out for a long time to come."

Ianto nodded. "Same."

A companionable silence settled over them and they both just watched one another, Jack gently rubbing the back of Ianto's hand with his thumb.

"So….er….time off?"

Ianto nodded.

"Take a couple of weeks. Do what you have to do."

"Thanks Jack."

"Would you promise me something though?"

Ianto smiled at him. "Name it."

"While you're away, call me if you need to talk. Day or night you call me and I'll listen."

"I will."

Jack seemed satisfied with that.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ianto was away for 12 days. Each morning at 7am Jack received a text message, five words.

_Is this a good time?_

Ten times Jack phoned him back and they spent an hour in conversation. Twice the reply was.

_Bloody rift!!_

When Ianto returned to the Hub he was greeted with warm comforting hugs from Tosh and Gwen, a snarky but good natured demand for 'decent coffee at last' from Owen and a privately shared very passionate kiss from Jack. It was like coming home.


End file.
